This past summer -- Friday, June 13th to be specific -- SuicideGirls hopped a plane down to Austin, Texas to visit the set of Friday the 13th, the remake of the 1980 slasher classic that introduced the world to drowned-boy-turned-unkillable-ghoul Jason Voorhees. Here is the final installment in our series of five interviews with those responsible for bringing horror back to Friday the 13th and giving Jason Voorhees a new lease of life.

Derek Mears gets into the head of the slash-happy serial killer for Platinum Dunes revisionist interpretation of the classic horror tale. Here he talks about the man behind the infamous hockey mask and the responsibility that goes with wielding Jason's bloody machete.

Question: Can you talk about the Jason outfit that you have to get into?

Derek Mears: The coat is gigantic and the hat. The hat? [laughs] I'm so tired. They have a bridle that's been made into, like, a machete sheath and that's pretty freakin' cool. They wet the shirt down and it looks kind of cheesy right now, but once it's lit and everything, [make-up and special effects guru Scott Stoddard has] made this kind of scoliosis bend in the body along the back, for a very slight hump. I know people heard about a hump before and they were like, "Oh, what the hell, he's a humpback? That's stupid!" And it's like, "Ugh, no." Everything else is me.

Q: Are you having a good time filming? Enjoying killing all these teenagers?

DM: Are you kidding me? This is like a dream. This is the best ever. It is a little weird when people say, "So, what did you do last night?" "Oh, I killed some teenagers." It's hard not to squeal and act like a twelve year-old girl in a school dress. When you talk about it you have to be very professional and your voice drops. It's really been a blast. It's been an absolute dream working on the show.

I've never worked on a show where everyone genuinely likes each other for who they are. There's none of that Hollywood crap where it's like, "I've worked on this, I'm so powerful" or "Do you know who I am? I have my own TV show." Everyone became friends and I felt so retarded, because later on I'd see these little bulletins come out -- I never IMDb'd anybody -- and I'd see a bulletin that would say, "Ryan Hansen from Veronica Mars" and I'd be like, "Dude, congratulations, that's awesome...that thing you did two years ago." I was a giant dork.

It's really been fantastic. It's like playing with your friends. Or, as I said before in a different interview, you run around playing Jason as a kid and then Hollywood goes, "Hey, you're pretty good at that -- why don't you come do it for everybody else?" It's like, "What, are you serious? Okay." So I'm taking my shot at it.

Q: So you're not keeping a willful distance between yourself and your victims?

DM: No, no. In the very beginning, Andrew Form, we went to dinner and he was teasing me. He said, "You seem really, really nice." I was like "Thanks." And he goes, "No, no, really nice. You're gonna be able to switch, right?" I was like, "Yeah, it's called acting. That's what I do." And we do scenes and [actress Amanda] Righetti keeps making me crack up. Amanda and I will goof around and she'll start getting these little laughter fits, and it's like, "Will you shut up? I'm doing stuff. You're being unprofessional." "No, you're being unprofessional!" And I think Danielle [Panabaker] was saying that it's hilarious that you'll switch into this really intimidating [mode], thrashing things around in the scene, throwing things, chasing people down, incredibly brutal, smashing people and holding onto them...and cut! "Hey bro, you okay?" "No, are you okay? Did I hit your mask?" "No, no, I'm fine." And everyone starts laughing. It's amazing.

Q: Jason chases people now? He usually just walks and they somehow can't get away.

DM: [laughs] Not anymore! For this one they've changed it around. They've made him more human. They wanted to make him an actual character and not just a machine, like in the other ones where, after Part 4 he starts to get into the zombie-robot movements. They wanted to get to where you feel sympathy for the character, you understand where he comes from. Mark [Swift] and Damian [Shannon], the writers, did a really good job of that. When I first read the script, I'd been a fan of the series forever, and I got extremely excited and tingly and it was like, "I have to be on this, because this is what I want to see as a fan."

With a Friday the 13th film, you watched them for the unique kills, there's never really been that big of a plot or unique character development, but with this one I was so excited, because each of the characters you actually care about. It's not like in some of the 80s films, where it's like, "Here's my one-line joke, this is where you're supposed to laugh." Here there's actually well-written comedy, it helps to relieve the tension in certain areas. It's not a giant comedy at all, this is just a little tiny part. And you actually care about the characters -- they have their own individual story arcs. What excited me was, with the characters, at different times during their arcs, before they've been completed or just started or they're about to discover something about themselves [claps his hands together] they get taken out! It sets up the premise that anyone can go at any time. There are no rules, and that's what I really, really dug about it.

Q: How does the violence level compare to the originals?

DM: In my opinion, it ups it. It's not your stereotypical slasher...It's actually smart. It lets us, as fans, see Jason set people up. I don't want to give anything away, but, someone does something and then you realize, "Wait a second, that's a fucking trap! Jason just set a trap for somebody? That was smart." You actually see him thinking. That's where I'd like to see the character go and that's what they're doing with this film.

Q: What's the core of this character from your point of view? How do you get inside of it?

DM: Well, in my opinion the Jason of the script is a victim, in general. Jason represents anyone who was teased as a kid. We've all gone through different stages in high-school, I had my hair loss, people had stuttering problems, they were outcasts and misfits, and that's what he ties into and that's what I myself tied into. He was a victim of society. He wants to be left alone, society has rejected him, he's pulled away from them, and now these kids come in and desecrate his area and he has nowhere left to run. It's very much like John Rambo in First Blood. He basically is the victim and he has to fight back. People have asked me before, "What's it like playing the villain?" "He's not a villain, he's a victim!" And people are like "You're kind of crazy." [laughs]

Q: Does Jason talk?

DM: Not in this one, no.

Q: What's your preparation like, to get into character?

DM: The physical aspect of it, this Jason is a lot leaner than the other Jasons, which were bulkier and slower-moving. Brad [Fuller] and Drew [Form] wanted to go with someone who was -- not to toot my own horn -- someone who had more functional training, someone who could still intimidate but was leaner and who had been living off the land and running through the forest and hiding. He's a hunter. So, preparation-wise, I did a lot of training, a full, crazy workout where each day is something different and it's a mixture of weights and core training and the design of it is for strength and to function.

For the mental aspect of it, I did a lot of research on child-development. In the script, Jason loses his mother and sees her get killed in front of him. He was nine to ten years old when that happened. So I did research on, when you're that age how do your cognitive processes happen? How is the child supposed to be developing? I found out that at that age you're starting to be integrating into society, whether it's through group sports or group activities so that you find out you're not alone. I discovered that he missed that aspect. He was already an outcast from society for looking different and being disfigured, and his only connection to love and reality is his mother. Losing her, he never got the chance to be a team player. I explored the psychological aspects of that and different parts about serial killers -- at some point something traumatic happens in their younger lives that makes it happen, or makes them not think clearly like everyone else.

I also did some research on wilderness survival, the psychology of wilderness survival, what happens to soldiers who get separated from their platoons, the psychology of realizing that you're alone and what that does to you. Just playing with those aspects, the hypothetical of "what if that continued." You put all these ingredients into this recipe and mix together.

Q: Did you take a look back at previous Jasons?

DM: Oh, I've been a fan of almost all the different Jasons before this. Richard Brooker, C.J. Graham, Kane Hodder. I've definitely done my own thing, with where I come from with the character. I've added little sprinkles, homages -- I don't know if they'll be picked up in the film -- to them. Like, there's this one scene where there's an homage to Part 2. Going through a window, I grab a character and it's very similar to that. Or like, in Part 4, where Tommy Jarvis comes down the stairs and there's that slow, stiffening Jason head-tilt.

In acting, there's a theory about Greek mask work; there's the object, which is the mask and there's the actor or the character. Individually, they are two separate identities, but when you put them together, it becomes a brand new identity. It's a very different recipe when you put them together and you're going to get a different outcome. To me, it's like handwriting. Like, how you guys make a B and how I make a B are totally different. It's our own style. So you bring your own experience, your own life-lessons

Q: Are you doing the stunts yourself?

DM: Yes and no. I had a double come in for...if you see the whole body and the face, it's always me, but I went and got married during the middle of the shoot and for one of the days they had a double come in and you see his hands -- there's a scene where he comes out of the floor grabbing a guy, pulling him down. And Chris, a friend of mine, has been dressed like me for certain shots, like walking shots of my legs and he did a rollover on the dock into the water. So yes and no.

Q: Do you have a favorite stunt so far?

DM: My not-so-favorite stunt so far has been this scene where I'm under a dock and I have to burst through. I don't know how many times we did it, but we did it the day before, like five times and then the next day we did it three times and I'm used to blasting through, so it's like, "Ready, and, action," and I shoot up and my hands and my head go at the same time and nothing happens. I thought one of the actors had stepped right where I was supposed to go as a joke and I totally gave myself a spinal compression, I was like, "Aaargh!" Of course I yelled some sort of lovely, creative profanity and then I hear the other actors start laughing and they didn't actually step on me at all, it's just that the board didn't break.

So everyone's kind of giggling and they set everything back up, and it's like, "Okay, let's do this, for real this time. Action!" Same thing happens. It's like, "Fuck me! This is the worst." I just kind of sink in the water and everyone's laughing and I'm just kind of like, "Yeah, it's fun for you guys." Swimming in the lake was absolutely crazy. I have this full gear on and of course the prosthetics take on water and we're testing everything out. I've got the full Frankenstein jacket, with bits and pieces together, a giant jacket. I have pieces of metal weighted on me. I have a chain, pieces of metal that are weighted, on me and I have prosthetics in for teeth. It's craziness, because I can't close my mouth at all

What I learned is that if you're swimming and water comes into your mouth, you need to be able to push your cheeks together and spit it out -- I'm SCUBA certified and I know water stuff and I didn't really know that -- so I was out on a little buoy and they had to pull the safety buoy away so that I can start to tread water. The respirator wouldn't fit in the mouth and they had an underwater shot where they see me go down. So they're like, "Let's try it out," and they pull it away and I immediately go under. My jacket gets caught on my shoulders and I can't raise my hands and that's when I realized that I can't close my mouth because of the prosthetics and the teeth. I'm like, "Okay, this sucks. I gotta kick, I'm going down." So I'm taking on water and I get panicked, scared. I start kicking like crazy, I come to the surface and try to give the dive sign for "Need help" and I can't get my hand up to do it! And they're rolling and I'm like [yells in a garbled voice] and one of the safety divers was like, "No, he needs us." Then we got rid of some of the stuff and tested it again and it was fine. But it was like, "Holy shit! That would be a good headline: 'Remember that time a guy died on Friday the 13th?'"

Q: What's your favorite Friday the 13th?

DM: That would be Part 4. By the way, feel free to edit out my "likes" and run-on sentences if I sound like a 13 year-old girl. I really like Part 4. I really identify with the Tommy Jarvis character. When I was younger, I had alopecia, which is hair loss -- it fell out in the sixth grade. It would fall out in patches and then grow back in. When I saw the scene where Feldman had his head shaved to look like Jason, that's kind of how my head looked at the time, with little patches here and there. I was like, "That's a picture of Jason as a kid? Whoa." I identified more with Jason than I already had. Subconsciously, that's one reason that I really identify with the character. It wasn't cool to be bald at the time, but everything happens for a reason -- now I get a lot of my work from being hairless, the creature stuff, it's easy to apply makeup and glue. It's been an absolute blessing.

Q: When you're out on location, have you freaked out any locals by walking around in the mask?

DM: Funny story, one time we were at a Boy Scout camp and they didn't know what we were shooting, but the Boy Scout camp had like two hundred cabins right next to where the base camp was. Brad and Drew, the producers, came over and told me to go over and say hi to the kids. [laughs] I said, "No way! They'd totally freak out. Plus, their dad will probably have a gun and I'll get shot. I'll scare the kids! Plus, you guys are thinking of this all wrong. What you do is pick one kid and scare the shit out of the one kid, then he runs back and says, 'Oh my God! I just saw Jason Voorhees!' and everyone thinks that kid's crazy."

Q: Is director Marcus Nispel generally encouraging you be as rough and as violent as possible in the performance?

DM: He is. I love seeing his eyes get this little tunnel vision -- you can almost see what he's seeing. He gets animated, he's like a child: [in German accent] "No, no, no, when you come in it's got to be ferocious and you are attacking like an animal! Everyone will freak out!" He gets so excited, and even these random things come in and out. There was this one scene where one guy was doing a death scene and I think they have a Marcus quote book of random things that come out of his mouth, which are little bits of gold. He was sitting there for this one guy's death scene and he goes, "More, more! Scream! Scream to the heavens! Reach to the heavens and scream!" He's yelling louder than the actor. Then he's like, "They've abandoned you. They've abandoned you, motherfucker! You are alone, motherfucker!" And I'm trying not to laugh. He was so passionate about it, but he was getting the performance that he wants. I turned to Scott in make-up effects while I was watching the actor crying and begging and I look at Scott and I go, "Holy shit, dude." And he goes, "What?" And I go, "This might be the first Friday the 13th where there are some really good actors." Cause they yelled cut and the actor was still in the moment and sobbing and trying to come back out of it. I was like, "This is really cool."

Q: Are you allowed to tell us how Jason finds his hockey mask?

DM: No.

Q: What are you thoughts on playing a franchise character that's beloved by so many horror fans?

DM: I'm on the Internet all the time, cause I'm a fan myself and I feel like I've kind of flipped sides. When there's a Batman movie announced, or a James Bond movie announced, I'm always like, "Who's this new guy? I liked so and so before! We'll see..." So I completely understand where the fans are coming from. It's strange. Heavy is the head that wears the mask, but I've been blown away by how positive and how supportive people have been so far, just people wanting to see the character in general and wanting the franchise to continue. I haven't seen that many negative comments, I've seen a few, but never really directed towards me, it's very respectful -- it's directed in the sense of, "I really like this guy, why don't they hire him?"

I feel a lot of responsibility, I really want it to be good. On set, a lot of the people in different departments are actually fans of the series and they want it to be the best it can be. Brad and Drew or Marcus will ask my opinion on something in a scene, or I'll be like, "Hey, I don't think Jason would do this" or "This isn't what I'm going for" and I'll always double-check. I'll go over to some of the fans and I'll be like, "Was that too over the top? I wanna make sure I'm strong with this." I get their feedback. There's like, a big huddle. I do ultimately want to make my own character choices, but I do want to make sure that, at three in the morning, I'm not drunk-tired and that I'm on the right page.

Q: If they ask you back, where would you like to see the story go?

DM: I was actually talking to Scott the other day and I was like, "What would you want to see?" We were playing with hypothetical situations and of course we got all smart-assy, getting into Freddy vs. Jason vs. Predator and it got more and more retarded. We got all fanboy-geeky. I'd like to keep the realism of the character. I think, what would really happen if all these people were murdered in a certain area over and over again? You'd think they'd send in a special forces team or something to investigate what was going on. Take it to the next level, where it was even more Rambo -- where people are actually trained professionals and having Jason go Tarzan on people, really use the land.

Q: Were you satisfied with the way things wrap up with Jason in this installment?

DM: Yeah, it's wild, because you walk a thin line between something new and something old. The question I keep asking myself is, how far do you go? You say, remember this from Part 3 or Part 4? That was really cool, but you want something new. Do you reinvent the wheel? It's tough, and truthfully, right now, I don't know what the ending is because it keeps changing. We've shot a couple of different ones, so I'm kind of up in the air, but I am excited that Brad and Drew and Marcus asked my opinion, which was really nice.

Q: Is there one ending that you're lobbying for?

DM: Not so much, actually. The ones that are presented, I'm like, "Oh, I can see it going that way..." I'm really on the fence. It's always like, "Yeah, I can see that." That's a horrible answer, but I don't know.

Friday the 13th opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, February 13, 2009. Check out the official site for more info.

This past summer -- Friday, June 13th to be specific -- SuicideGirls hopped a plane down to Austin, Texas to visit the set of Friday the 13th, the remake of the 1980 slasher classic that introduced the world to drowned-boy-turned-unkillable-ghoul Jason...